Battle-tested reflexes kick in. Mitsuo throws himself against the wall to cut off as many angles of attack as possible. One gloved hand draws a knife from his pocket, the other weaves through a quick series of mudras. When he releases the last gesture, the vampire across the room begins to glow with an eerie bluish light. It's not much, but in the darkness it makes her easy to track. Mitsuo allows himself a tight grin and shifts to meet her charge.

The inside of the church is a wreck. Most of the pews have been smashed into kindling and the dust is still settling from the explosion that took out the windows.

Warden Cole is standing on the dias in front of the altar, his saber in his right hand and an orb in his left. It glows bright blue. The screams are coming from the priest curled up in a ball behind Cole. He's hysterical. It's the same priest from the bar, so it's probably Father James.

The reason he's screaming crawls into view. It's a demon. Roughly human shaped, if the human was skinned alive and had ten inch claws. The demon hisses and a long tongue whips back and forth out of its toothy mouth.

Cole looks up when the door opens. "Get out of here!" he yells. The demon uses the distraction to take a swipe at the Warden.

Mitsuo slithers inside of the vampire's outstretched arm and turns it aside with the rib of his knife. The force of impact with her body sends them both stumbling a few steps. Mitsuo recovers by shouldering the wall, turning himself back and using the rebound force to drive his blade at her, center mass.

"And leave you to die? Hell no!" Hugues shouted, raising up his right arm and firing a fire arrow straight for the Licker Demon.

(Activating Fire Arrow Gauntlet. Weapons: 6 attack aimed by Discipline.
Discipline: -+// +4 = 4. Not good enough. Invoking Big drat Heroes Clone of a WWII Warden to get +2 for a total of 6 to hit, with Weapons:6)

Krysmphoenix posted:

(Activating Fire Arrow Gauntlet. Weapons: 6 attack aimed by Discipline.
Discipline: -+// +4 = 4. Not good enough. Invoking Big drat Heroes Clone of a WWII Warden to get +2 for a total of 6 to hit, with Weapons:6)

With a slightly crazed smile on her face, Jenny grabs the cup and fills it in the baptismal water font. A cup! Full of water! Good water! Holy water!

Remember the lessons. Take a deep breath. Extend the arm fully. Check that the bracelet is lined up with the object and the target. Focus. Gather the power, aim and... release!

Demons freak Jenny out a little bit.

Summoning 5 power and aiming the holy water at the demon, attempting a manouever. /--/ + 5 = 3. I'm Invoking You Can't Stop Me, I Know What's Right (ignoring Cole's advice to beat it) for a total of 5 to land the manouever. Adds the aspect 'Drenched in Holy Water' to the demon. This should satisfy the catch for the monster until he removes it somehow or it expires.

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

While Hugues and Jenny began dealing with the demon, Ada reached for her case. She struggled to keep her breathing calm in spite of the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she drew a blackened knife with a ruby on its hilt, not bothering to take the golden chain that was paired to it. It was familiar to the touch, in spite of not having seen use in quite some time.

Carefully, Ada grasped the knife in her left hand, and raised her right. "Dealing with a monster like this will require power...lots of it. And I know where to find it.". With a quick, precise motion, the knife caused a small gash to appear across Ada's right arm. She ignored the jolt of pain that came with it - it meant absolutely nothing. Not if she got the result she was looking for.

Instead of flowing out, the blood remained contained at a single point as Ada stared at it intently, concentrating, preparing it. Once she felt the time was right, the blood rose up through the air until it was at her eye level, expanding horizontally much further than it could have under normal circumstances. Keeping the spell together was a major effort, but it was something more besides that: It was exhilarating. She hadn't worked with this much power in a long, long time, and the feeling of it was intoxicating. She was in control of it. Absolute control of an ancient, powerful force.

She turned her mind away from that overpowering feeling and back at the here and now. There was work to do. Glaring at the demon, Ada growled. "You don't belong here. You have no place in this world. Go to Hell! Suru Haita!"

The blood rushed forward with the speed and force of a raging tsunami. Panting, Ada watched it as it headed towards the demon with a wicked grin on her face. "Let's see how you can handle this, ugly."

Alright, time to have some fun. Assuming I can tag both the Consequence and the Aspect Jenny has placed down to boost my roll and satisfy the Catch respectively, Ada invokes nine shifts of power, taking a Mild Rush of Power consequence to reflect a slightly frayed mental state, and rolls Discipline. Declaring a Focus Item of Offensive Blood Control +2 here, and Foxxbot's result was --++, so the end result is...+8! This requires taking Backlash, so I take a hit of physical stress. This church is going to get wrecked by the blood blast more than by the demon, I think...

J.R.'s hand flashes to a pocket, and pulls out a cross-inscribed bullet. "Been saving this one for you, souleater!" he shouts as he slams the bullet into into the cylinder and, nearly pressing his barrel into her chest, pulls the trigger.

Lore +3 means I have a holy bullet on me. Weapon:4 (since my lore is 4), fired by Guns. Tagging Phantasmal Glow for better targeting, and spending 2 FP to invoke The Last Gunfighter Ballad and the Devi's Right Hand to shoot this vamp down. Total attack is +11 and counts for bypassing the vamp's catch. Guns +/++ +11 = 14, with a weapon: 4 that bypasses it's catch.

pre:

Defenses: Athletics (Dodge) +5, Armor:2 (1 use, then use mental stress to re-use)
Applicable Aspects: The Last Gunfighter Ballad, The Devil's Right Hand, I Won't Back Down
Applicable Stunts: Shoot 'Em Where It Hurts: Deal 2 more stress when using a revolver against an enemy with Armor:1 or greater
Physical: () () () ()
Mental: () () ()
Social: () () ()
Any Mild (-2) Consequence: (), Any Moderate (-4) Consequence: ()
Any Major (-6) Consequence: (), Any Extreme (-8) Consequence: ()

"I... I can't... believe this..." the vampire's voice is in complete shock from her place on the floor. The lights in the shop come on, and the teenager stares at the two of you with wide, terrified eyes before ducking back behind the counter.

The Duchess is utterly ruined. J.R.'s bullet hit her like the wrath of God, blowing a hole in her chest you can actually see through. The vamp doesn't bleed at all, just lays there on the ground making sickening crunchy noises. Is it laughing?

"I never thought... it would come to this. What would you have of me, pets, in exchange for my pitiful existence? Or will you kill me?"

The Duchess concedes! As she does not have any consequences left, you may request something of her or just kill her permanently instead.

The licker demon's flesh pops and bubbles under the holy water but it doesn't react at all, simply holding it's crouch and staring forward at the group. Its tongue whips back and forth angrily. It is waiting.

It cocks it's misshapen head at Ada as she slices into her skin. Blood. It likes blood. It knows this kind of magic very well. Ada's bloody attack shoots straight at the monster but it leaps to the side, landing on the wall. It sticks to the wall like a giant spider and roars again.

JR speaks first. "Look, if we kill her, we can still look around for the book."
Mitsuo shakes his head. Hissing quietly at JR, he says, "I don't think we're necessarily making an enemy if we let her live. At least, not any more than the Black Court are enemies in general."
"How is that an argument for letting her live?"
"If we let her live, she'll remember that we nearly killed her with one bullet, and step lightly. If we kill her, Reginald and friends start knocking down our doors."
"I can guarantee if we let her live we'll have Reggie and her after us. Souleaters don't forgive and don't forget, boy!"
"You can guess that they will come after us. Remember, the Black Court admires strength above all else."
"... Souleaters breed more souleaters."
"But one souleater is a drop in the bucket."
"At least it's a start!"
"Look, we have her in a position where we can use her to get what we want."
"We got proof here that God already knows where they go. Why not move them along?"
"If we kill her, we throw away our advantage and don't get anything for it."
"If we let her go, every dead body she makes from now on is on your head!"
"I've already got more dead bodies on my head than you've got years under your belt, cowboy. Some for reasons no better than this. It won't change how I sleep at night. So unless you've been holding back some better reason, put the gun down."
"Fine! You want to make friends with monsters, go ahead. But I'm not gonna hang around here while you do it!" J.R. slams the gun back into its holster and storms out of the shop.

Mitsuo sighs heavily. Though he'd won the argument, he isn't satisfied by pissing off his - friend? Yes, his friend. On top of that, he suddenly finds himself alone in hostile territory. Not a unique situation but never a comfortable one. He looms over the blasted vampire - at a cautious distance.

"We came to speak to Reginald. There is information that I require - a text on demonology, or some similar compendium of knowledge. With certain specific parameters, which should be discussed alone." He glares at the counter where the kid's hiding, raising his voice with the last few words since his gaze can't penetrate the wood.

J.R. left, fuming. drat fool was gonna get himself and a lot of other people killed, not to mention J.R. himself. Some things God didn't want in this world, and souleaters were one of them. They'd woke up the wrong passenger in this one, and should have just finished the job.

J.R. made a quick detour before heading him. If he was gonna be fighting demons, or souleaters again (and he drat sure was going to), he'd need another bullet or two. He knew a priest that might still be up at night. The bullets wouldn't be as strong as the special marked one he'd fired tonight, but they'd do the job.

Spending my second potion slot to get 2 blessed bullets of Weapon:3, and going to sleep.

Hugues steps forward, bracing his right arm as he aims at the demon now sitting ont he wall. "Come on...work!" It takes a bit of extra willpower, but he gets another Fire Arrow out of the gauntlet. The demon looked like it was ready to attack, and Hugues was also positioning himself forward, to keep Jenny and Ada out of harm.

"Demon lore? Well, well, who's the bad little pet." She crunches again, and it looks like she's attempting to get her legs under her. "You heard him Steven, go home. And put the gun down. We have an agreement."

Steven appears back over the counter with a double barrel shotgun in his shaking hands. He sets it down and grabs a backpack then runs out the door and doesn't look back.

Hugues' second bolt takes the demon in the shoulder and the fire spreads over his charred and cracked flesh. He falls from the wall and lands in a pile of broken pews with a crash. When he emerges his arms don't seem to be working quite right and he moves a bit slower than before.

That's it. The demon is not going to take any more of this poo poo. His constructed body is in ruins and he is going to kill that tiny fire-throwing nuisance if it's the last thing he does. His tongue lashes out at Hugues like a bullwhip.

Licker attacks! --+/ +4 = 3. Hugues defends @ +4, Licker misses.

---

Warden Cole (FP:1->0)

Cole smiles grimly. It looks like he was worried for no reason. The little group has proven resourceful and smart. The holy water was a stroke of genius and one he intends to take full advantage of.

Cole's orb glows bright blue and the water on the demon's skin begins to boil. It shakes like a dog, throwing scalding hot water everywhere. Cole steps back but not before getting splashed on the arm.

Cole summons 6 shifts of power for a water attack. Rolls disc to control: ---- +5 ..... Takes 4 physical backlash. Soaks with minor consequence "Scalded" and marks his 2nd checkbox. Tags Doused in Holy Water to activate Catch.

Mitsuo watches Steven all the way out the door. Once he's gone, he walks over to the counter, speaking as he goes.

"Well. There is a demon, or some other dark denizen, which has been active recently, and seems to have a fondness for certain human parts. Specifically, eyes."

He hits the break release on the shotgun, folds it open, and pockets the shells before discarding the empty weapon.

"So, I am looking for several things." He ticks them off on his fingers as he goes. "One. Demons et cetera which draw sustenance or power from human flesh and eyes in particular. Two. Spellcraft describing the magical properties of eyes. Three. Spells and rituals that use eyes as materials. And four, any other significant historical mention of enucleation, perhaps as torture, punishment, or initiation rites. It is a long list, I'm afraid, but I am sure you can satisfy some of my curiosities."

While Mitsuo speaks, he continues to look around the shop - while of course keeping aware of the supposedly disabled vampire on the floor. The place is dingy, even run down, but there must be more to it than is immediately apparent. He wonders if it might be a front for the entire Black Court presence in New Orleans, or just for this Reginald and his cadre. And... come to think of it, Reginald himself is a bit of a mystery. Mitsuo turns to the Duchess again.

"And on a more personal note, I should like to hear more about yourself and this Duke Reginald. Your Court is quite insular, not the least because you tend to eat people before they can spread their stories."

"Eyes, eyes and more eyes. You are too narrow minded, pet. The eye is a focus, an... aiming mechanism, if you will. You need to have power of another source before the eye will do anything at all. I have only one book that would interest you. It is behind the counter, the one bound in black leather. As to my court and my husband..." It creaks with laughter. "Go gently caress yourself."

A lot of holy water. That's the ticket. Where can I get more? I could fill another cup... no! Not enough. I need more.

Lots more.

...tons more.

Like... a stone fountain filled with holy water?

Yes. That big.

With an entirely wordless, moderately hysterical and only slightly intentional cackle, Jenny moves to the side of the baptismal font, arms extended. Jenny spins back towards the creature and moves into a softball pitcher's stance, arm winding up and revolving twice before turning into a vicious underarm throwing motion.

The font twists, bulging out from the wall in resistance before tearing loose from the attachments and flying through the air, directly at the demon's head.

Summoning 7 shifts of power and checking off a 3-stress hit due to overcharge, as well as tagging Parboiled and Charred Bones for my discipline roll, /+-/ +9 = 9 and Weapon: 7. Picking up and throwing the actual baptismal font at the demon means I should avoid having to invoke for the catch.

Mitsuo shrugs off the insult. Ducking behind the counter, he selects the indicated volume and tucks it under his arm. "As you will. Let me just give you one word of advice." Before exiting the shop, he throws the last words over his shoulder.

Hugues stared at his apprentice in pure awe. She...threw the baptismal font? The entire font? Jesus Christ, he missed being able to do that.

Cole at least knocked him back to reality. "Uhh...yeah, I can do that, I've got a cell." He starts to step out, and takes a moment to look at all the destruction. "Such a shame the water-heating system under the baptismal font blew up. This looks like a nice church."

Once he was outside, he waited by the cars and turned on his cell. As he waited for the drat thing to boot up, he started wimpering. He hadn't quite mastered fake crying yet, but he could simulate the sounds close enough.
"Y-y-y-yes? Nine one one? Hello? Something blew up at our church, everything's broken and there's water everywhere. Father James is hurt real bad, Auntie says we need an ambuwance..." It killed him on the inside to butcher the English language like that. "Please hurry, Father's a real nice man, I don't want him to die! I don't want him to..."

(Deceit to act like a crying child and make this sound real.
Deceit: /+/- +2 = 2.)

RPZip posted:

Scholarship +5 to examine the injuries and see what I can do for them.

Father James is unconscious, which is probably a mercy. His right hand is completely gone, sliced off at the wrist. He's been bleeding for a while now, and the carpet around the altar is soaked with it. The cut is so clean that it must have been made by a blade. There is no way that monster's claws did this.

He's gone into shock already. If the bleeding isn't stopped immediately he will die, and even then his chances are slim.

The wound is... bad. Very bad. And clean. Jenny's eyes flick towards Cole's terribly sharp sword, then back to the task at hand. No time for that now.

"Cole! Put pressure on this, I need to grab supplies."

Jenny tears into the first aid kit, pulling a tourniquet, gauze, and throwing some hastily-applied gloves onto her hands. No blood clotters in the kit, damnit. This would have to do.

"Keep the pressure up! He's lost a ton of blood already, we're going to lose him if we can't stabilize him long enough for the ambulance to get here."

The tourniquet goes around the wound, but it's no good - blood is still oozing out, far too much to be healthy. Cole hands Jenny an ice pack from somewhere and she slaps it on, frantically applying bandages and gauze to the wound to try and get it to clot.

"Damnit... damnit! Clot, drat you! Clot! I'm not losing you here!"

Rolling Scholarship to try and slow/stop the bleeding. -+-/ + 4 = 3, spending a Fate Point to invoke Vet with the Magic Scalpel to bring it to +5. The good father survives another exchange. Next exchange I get a /-++ +4 = 5, +2 from Cole's ice assistance, for a total of 7.

Cole looks around after handing Jenny the ice he conjured up. The church looks like it's been hit by a bomb. This is not going to be easy to explain. Father James is still in bad shape but he's not looking any worse at least. The sound of sirens gets closer.

"We need to move him out front." Cole says, slipping his arms under the priest's shoulders. "Ladies, grab a leg each. Kid, get the door."

It takes no time to get Father James outside and lay him down at the top of the steps. The ambulance arrives and it takes only a few seconds before Father James is loaded up. The water heater explosion story gets a few raised eyebrows but one of the medics compliments Jenny on a job well done. "You saved his life, ma'am." he says. When Jenny wants to go along the man shakes his head. "Family only." Then he closes the door and the ambulance rockets off, sirens blaring.

Another set of sirens is drawing nearer. The cops in town are pretty useless, but explosions aren't something they can ignore.

Cole sighs. "I for one have no intention of hanging around for mortal authorities. I want to talk to you three back at my office." He rubs at his singed arm, slightly embarassed. "Can I hitch a ride?"

Minor Milestone reached! Do your refreshes now and note any changes made. This is a good time to contact JR and Mitsuo and pool information/get them back into the group.

Congrats you've saved the warden! Morgan-meter adjustment: Ada -1, Jenny -1, Hugues -1. Cole rolls contacts to see if he heard about Reggie's. ---+ +1 = -1. Cole has no idea what happened at Reggie's. No change for Mitsuo and J.R.

Jenny turns to Cole as the sirens get closer, briefly glancing down at his sword again before returning to his face. "Uh. Yeah, sure, I'd be glad to give you a ride. Hmm. Well, Hughes needs to sit in the front, the back seat isn't safe for him. Do you mind riding in the back with Ada?"

Kicking around stunt ideas. Someone with a phone should ring up Mitsuo and J.R.

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

For a moment, Ada was ready to refuse - something in her gut made her feel bad about spending more time in close proximity with the Warden than strictly necessary. Maybe it was an inbuilt mistrust of authority from her earlier years. Maybe it was an odd hunch. Whatever the case, it was there and it didn't feel good, not at all.

Then, she shook her head and nodded. Cole had saved Father James' life from the demon until they had arrived, and he'd done his part in putting the beast down. There was nothing wrong about him, nothing to deserve that suspicion...and besides, Hugues and Jenny couldn't exactly mince words with him like that. She nodded. "No problem."

The journey to Cole's office left Ada feeling a little lightheaded. As the rush from the power channel wore off, she started to shiver a bit - it took a lot out of a body to bring forth as much energy as she had. In fact, there had been some absolutely spectacular discharges that night. She wasn't sure whether to feel pleased about how quickly Jen and Hugues had pounded the demon into mush, or worried that it had come to ravaging the church that badly in an effort to put it down. There wasn't a point in worrying about the consequences, because they sure as hell were coming, and probably hard. Holding her head on one hand as she felt the beginnings of a headache coming on, she looked at Cole.

"Great opening nights for the new job, huh? Can't say I envy your position. poo poo chose a pretty great time to hit the fan."

"I'm starting to think it isn't a coincidence." Cole replies, leaning his head back and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Not my being here but the official end of the war. Someone's making a play for the city, now that the Reds are gone. I just wish I knew who."

Cole notices Ada shiver and takes off his light jacket. "Here." he says, offering it to her. He doesn't need it right now anyway, too warm from adrenaline. That was the first time he'd fought a demon to the death. He wasn't at all certain that he could have killed it alone, not while protecting Father James. Polly's Death Curse had been ringing in his ears as he stood on the dias.

If it hadn't been for these three, someone would have died back there.

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Ada's expression softened a bit at Cole's gesture. Maybe he was the sort of decent fellow New Orleans had been asking for for quite a while. It was too early to tell, but little details like this one were the sort of things to watch.

Cole's words jogged Ada's memory, though - J. R. and Mitsuo had been at the parking lot, and if she knew them at all, they had probably done some investigative work of their own. She made a note of asking them once they were done talking with the Warden. No sense in making a mess right now.

"Nobody trusts a Warden." She said, bluntly, before quickly adding, "Must make things hard. Everybody who might know something is too used to hearing stories about greycloaks kicking doors down and brandishing a sword to lop people's heads off. And the ones who aren't too scared to talk are probably the ones that go scaring people when the sun goes down. Did the Captain set you up with some friends, or did she just hand the city over and left you to fix the mess?"

Cole winces. She isn't wrong. Hell, last night in the parking lot had been the textbook example of why no one in their right mind trusted a Warden. But Cole just hasn't been one long enough to fall into that mindset yet. He is a little worried deep down that it's going to get him killed.

"Well for not trusting me you sure saved my rear end back there. Thanks for that." He pauses for a second, wondering if he should say anything further. "There's been no White Council presence in this city since Katrina. Friends are something I'll have to make on my own."

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

"This is a good start." Ada said, nodding. "Helping the Father will spread out some goodwill, if nothing else. Will take a while to earn people's trust, but you gotta start somewhere."

After a moment, she spoke again, her voice a bit quieter. "Way I see it, there wasn't much of a choice back there. You were trying to help the Father with the Big Nasty, and we were around to help. Maybe you'll bite our heads off someday, but I'll take a maybe over the hundred percent chance of that demon." She smirked, humorlessly, before continuing. "Besides...you can't walk away from something like this. If you run away after hearing screams and watching crystals explode like that, you'll just keep going back to what you could have done once the news roll out about the people you left behind because you were too scared to help. And I don't leave people behind." There was a quiet intensity to Ada's last few words. What she had said before was sincere, but this was something more: it was a part of her, something she so deeply believed in that it had been internalized completely.

When the ambulance left, Hugues pulled out Nazarene's cell phone and dug through the contacts list. He remembered Jenny and Ada mentioning a Sula woman, and he assumed she had some kind of leadership position. She was also probably Informed. As he called her up, he got stuck with her answering machine; probably for the best.
"Hello there, this is Hugues...uhhh, you probably don't know me but I'm a friend of Jenny and Ada whom you spoke to earlier today. We left to see Father James and uhh...look, things were bad. Supernaturally bad. I'm not sure what happened but when we got there the church was a wreck, and Warden Cole was there with Father James. James is currently at *insert local hospital name here*. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I figured you should know as soon as possible. Bye."

poo poo, more sirens? Hugues pulled out his own cell-phone and quickly called up JR and Mitsuo, leaving identical messages for both of them.
"JR/MITSUO! Umm, can't talk much. We're on the way to Cole's office after we saved his rear end from a demon. You two might want to head over here too, and let us know what the hell you've been up to. Bye."

With the messages done, Hugues quickly turned off the two phones and pulled out the Portable Veil quickly running to Jenny's car. With the Veil wrapped around him, his own vision was blurry and he ran straight into the side of Jenny's car. He opened the back seat door and used a finger to lift the veil enough so he could see clearly. "Oh, hello Warden. Uhh...front seat." He then ran around to the other side, rushed in and only once he was finally buckled up, took off the Veil. "I called Sula, vaguely let her know what happened, since I don't know how informed she is. JR and Mitsuo are going to meet us at Cole's office. Anyway, the cops are showing up, go go go go go!"

"Richter, actually. Cole is my family name. Nice to meet you too." He wondered what had happened to the young woman to inspire that kind of focused dedication.

"Turn here Jenny. Yeah, the red brick with the big window."

Cole's Office is a a 2 story brick building. It must have been converted from an apartment at some point. There's a set of stairs leading up near the front door, presumably to the bedroom/bathroom. The office itself is spacious with two large windows on opposite sides letting in natural light. Cole's desk is under one of the windows, and there's a stand holding his grey cloak next to his chair. He unstraps his sword belt and hangs it on the hook next to the cloak. A small kitchen is behind one wall.

Rounding the corner, Mitsuo digs out the keys to a battered grey Subaru 1000. The engine turns over on the fourth try. While rumbling across town towards Village de L'Est, he cracks open the book to glance at the pages. Nope! English would've been too easy. Definitely nothing Asian. It might be German or Yiddish, but his German is pretty weak - mostly "Good morning!" and "DROP YOUR WEAPONS" - and some of the characters are... wiggling. Writhing, really. Let's just close that.

The 1000 pulls into the driveway of a plain concrete-and-vinyl building. The windows on the first floor are all barred, and the reinforced doors were once green but are now mostly rusty red. (Festive.) Gothic print over the peephole reads

pre:

FORWARD THINKING LLC
Security Consulting and Protective Services

Mitsuo pulls three keys to deal with the heavy bolts. Once inside, he re-bolts the door, hangs his keys on a hook behind the surplus steel desk up front, and heads for the stairs. The second floor is marginally less severe than the first; two large rooms and a bathroom, divided with cypress-and-paper screens into smaller living areas. On the wall at the top of the stairs, visible from below, are hung two curved swords in lacquered red scabbards, underneath a picture of an Asian gentlemen in heavily decorated military dress.

The book is placed carefully on a low table. Mitsuo proceeds to the back room, removes his coat and tie, and opens a large steel rotary-dial bank safe in the living-room area. Vapor pours out of the front, pooling on the floor. Mitsuo emerges with a Pepsi. He closes the safe, cracks his soda, and goes to work on the book.

Lore +3 -//+ = +3. Guess what? German.

Well, at least it's not Aramaic or something. That would be silly. Mitsuo glares, frustrated, at the pages, until his ancient black rotary phone jumps and rings. He closes the book and picks up.

"Mosh-"

"MITSUO!"

"Hugues, I-"

"Umm, can't talk much. We're on the way to Cole's office after we saved his rear end from a demon."

"But th-"

"You two might want to head over here too, and let us know what the hell you've been up to. Bye."

*click*

Mitsuo stares at the handset for a moment before replacing it in the brass cradle. His first thought is to bring the book along for Hugues to translate.

...

His SECOND thought is that this is a SPECTACULARLY TERRIBLE IDEA, bringing demonic grimoires into a Warden's office. He takes another disgusted swig of Pepsi and slips the book onto a nearby shelf, between Xenophon and Clausewitz. Grabbing his jacket, he downs the soda, neatly places the can into a recycling bin downstairs, and fires up the 1000. (Second try! Not bad.)

"Uhh, yes please. Something unsweetened please, they feed us way too much sugar at school."

Hughes sat down at the table and laid his head on it. Fighting demons could wear out a child fast. He looked at Jenny and Ada, and kept his voice down. "If Cole asks anything about my background, let me do the talking. If I tell something that contracts our history, just shut up, and smile and nod."

"When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently."
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

"Gonna pull a fast one on him." Ada said, nodding. "Got it, but don't spin too big a yarn here. No point in lying more than the strictly necessary right now." She understood Hugues' need to keep his cover up, but thought he might be acting a bit paranoid.

Then again, she wasn't trapped inside a ten-year old body. Maybe he had a point.

Cole returns from the kitchen with a stack of 4 styrofoam cups and a steamy pitcher of hot tea. Noticing the lack of chairs he sets the pitcher and the cups down on the desk and pulls open the closet under the stairs, grabbing two metal folding chairs and setting them up quickly.

"Sorry, haven't had anyone over yet." He says, pouring the drinks. "Anyways, I imagine we have some information to swap. Trust being at somewhat of a premium here, let's keep it to an even exchange. A question for a question." He sits down and sips lightly. "As you are my guests, you can begin."

Hugues took his cup of tea, and sipped it. Ooohhh...this was good stuff.

"What are we now, Fae?" Hugues asked, raising an eyebrow at the even exchange of questions. "But alright, I've got one. How did that demon get in the church in the first place? Churches have powerful Thresholds, and I find it hard to believe that you invited the demon in."

Not a faerie then, Cole thinks, watching Hugues carefully. The kid is too competent by half.

"I just like to keep things professional." he says. "Do it my way and everyone walks out happy. As to your question: It didn't look like a horror movie monster when it showed up, and it wasn't alone. The priest invited two young men into the church. One of them was that thing Jenny squashed in a human guise. I thought Father James was clued in. He wasn't, or wasn't before last night anyway. I only got to talk to him for a few minutes before ugly showed up, but he was pretty deep in denial about everything he'd seen at the Rising Sun, and he didn't know about the rules of invitation."

"My first question is this: How did you know to come to the church?"

Compel on Jenny's "Ingenue's Intercession" to be a little too open when answering this question!

J.R. awoke late in the morning, his nighttime adventures having cut into his sleep. The first thing he made was a ward, to alert him if anyone but one of the maids came in. He slipped on an inscribed iron ring and meditated in this room for a moment, extending his senses throughout the room. When he had it solid in his mind, he sent it into the ring. Now if anyone came to mess in his the room, the ring would rust and he'd know it

JR then spent his usual few hours watching TV in the hotel room - it was important to learn more about the time he was in now. Hughes' call comes while J.R. is in the bathroom, but he listens to the message and nods to himself.

Talking to the warden, huh? Well, perhaps he'd see if this Cole fella was someone to ride the river with and go kill some souleaters. And if not, well, he could at least get some information from him. J.R. added his Super Redhawk to his carry. With souleaters mad at him, he'd probably be glad to have it. He headed out to find a cab.

Making a ward (0 strength, +2 for an alarm, +2 for keying the alarm to an object). If anyone other than one of the maids comes into the room, the ring rusts. Also I'm changing my Pickin' Time aspect to The Man Comes Around. It covers both JRs religiosity and his reputation.

The tea is rather good, if a bit less sweet than Jenny usually takes it. Maybe Hughes does have a point with all that moaning about how much sugar she puts in it...

"How did we get to the church? By... car? We drove here in... oh. We visited the prayer circle of Mother Sula earlier, and she gave us the priest's contact information as a possible lead. We thought he might have been part of the Compact, some kind of demon-banishing organization."

Jenny sighs and puts down the teacup, steeling herself for a question she isn't sure she wants to ask. "My question is this: What happened to the priest? Specifically his hand. That cut was way too clean to be from a claw."

Cole raises an eyebrow. He's heard of the Compact but only the name, nothing specific. He'll have to make some phone calls later.

"It wasn't a claw, it was a machete. The priest invited two young men inside and they walked towards the altar. They talked for a few seconds then the first one shook his hand. When the priest tried to pull away the young man pulled the blade out of his coat and took the priest's hand off in a single stroke. I tried to intervene when I saw what happened and that's when the second young man changed into what you saw. I don't think they wanted witnesses."

Cole thinks for a second before asking his second question. "Why are you involving yourselves in this murder investigation?"